Chaucer's Friar
In the Canterbury Tales, the Friar's Tale and the Summoner's Tale are intended to be satires about the corruption of the church in the Middle Ages, and would have been considered comedic by the audience, but also as being quite close to the truth. Chaucer was very likely sympathetic with the early-Protestant Lollards and Reformers and intended this to be a humorous commentary on "the abuse that infected the medieval church" (Hallissy 138). Although the Friar and the Summoner work for the church, neither of them is even a remotely holy man, and their reasons for being on the pilgrimage are purely material rather than religious. Both of these characters equally corrupt and venal and have no real spiritual values but only an urge to satisfy their appetite for money (Pearsall 166). Chaucer does have a serious moral intent in these tales, and is condemning "the financial abuses corrupting God's church, eating it away from within" (Hallissy 147). These abuses including the buying and selling of church offices, theft of funds intended for the poor, the sale of masses and indulgences for the souls of the dead and general extortion of taxes, rents and donations from the common people. All of these were very well-known in the Late Middle Ages and contributed to outright rebellions against the church authorities by early Reformers like John Wycliffe in England and John Hus in Bohemia.
Franciscan friars took oaths of poverty, chastity and obedience, vowing the live as mendicants by begging for donations and doing good works among the poor. Chaucer's friar was "a preacher licensed to raise funds for his community within a specific geographical area," although in the General Prologue he is revealed to be a thief...
Thomas's gift turns out to be a giant fart, which Chaucer describes using richly comedic imagery: "Ther nys no capul, drawynge in a cart, / That myghte have lete a fart of swich a soun," ("Summoner's Tale," lines 486-487). The humor continues to enliven the Summoner's tale; toward the end the characters seriously debate how to divide up a fart. Chaucer's use of comedy and farcical imagery parallels his mockery
Since they are blank pages, the women possess no direct say in which man will use her to write his story. The result is that men will compete over her and she will remain largely passive in this pursuit. This motif is used by Chaucer both within the Miller's and Knight's tales, and between these two pilgrims; men compete for women in both stories, just as the Knight and
Chaucer's "Retraction" and Its Meaning within the Context of the Canterbury Tales The "Retraction," a fragment that follows the last of the Tales in Chaucer's masterpiece, has attracted much critical attention, as students of Chaucer attempt to divine whether it implies a renunciation on the author's part of his work, or is intended ironically. Benson comments that "the authenticity of the Retraction has been challenged" (Benson, 2000), and certainly it is possible
The destination is a holy and venerated site, one that should inspire devotion, a spirit of penance, and peace; and it is fitting that a merry man should be the one to invite the other pilgrims to the game of the telling tales. Unlike Dante's pilgrimage through the afterlife, which tends toward a much more spiritual focus, Chaucer's pilgrimage is earthly in the sense that its main focus is on
Perhaps no one has more of a sense of humor about herself and the world than the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath shatters a number of stereotypes of the Middle Ages a contemporary reader might possess: first of all, she is socially powerful. As a widow, she is rich, and she is willing to speak her mind. Chaucer's evident delight as a narrator in her lustiness shows that
Seeing that he was miserable, she told him he could either have her loyal but ugly or beautiful and unfaithful (Chaucer pp). The knight leaves the decision up to her thus, giving the old hag exactly what she wanted, to be in control of her husband. This decision resulted in the old hag becoming beautiful and loyal (Chaucer pp). Women are central to this tale from the beginning to the
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